Devices or agents often communicate using one or more communication links or lanes at very high data rates. The settings of a transmitting device and a receiving device to achieve maximum margin are often pre-determined by using a software simulation of the characteristics of the platform or the board.
However, the actual characteristics of each communication lane on a specific board may vary significantly from the model used in the software simulation. This may cause the settings of the transmitting device and the receiving device to be sub-optimal for the communication links. When a single and common setting for the transmitting device and the receiving device is used, significant lane-to-lane variations may also cause the communication links to be sub-optimal.